The Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Congress passed the “Marine Police Law” on 22nd, authorizing the marine police to use force when dealing with foreign vessels in “waters under Chinese jurisdiction”. The new law takes effect today, The Japanese government is concerned about the Diaoyutai waters rising tensions, and expressed concern to the Chinese government.
The Central News Agency cited Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported that China’s maritime police law came into effect on February 1, and Japan is concerned that the Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats on guard around Diaoyutai, as well as Japanese fishing boats fishing in the waters may become the target of China’s military action.
Chinese maritime police ships sailed in the contiguous zone off Japan’s territorial waters for a record 333 days last year. The Japan Coast Guard noted that six Chinese marine police vessels showed new numbers on their hulls, and that the group was roughly four ships operating in formation.
The Chinese Coast Guard is equipped with large patrol boats of 10,000 tons, and the vessels are getting larger and larger. Some of the patrol boats are equipped with 76mm machine guns similar to those equipped by the Navy.
Japanese fishing officials in Okinawa Prefecture fear that in the future, fishing boats in the Diaoyutai waters will be met by Chinese marine police with weapons. There were eight disputes last year in which Chinese maritime police boats approached Japanese fishing boats. After the Japanese government nationalized Diaoyutai, there were only 4 cases between 2013 and 2019.
The Japanese government does not want China to normalize the situation of obstructing Japanese fishing boats in Japan’s “territorial waters,” arguing that Japan’s “substantial rule” over Diaoyutai will be questioned if China often enforces its maritime police law in Japan’s “territorial waters.
The report said that after the U.S. President Joe Biden‘s administration took office on the 20th, the U.S. and Japanese defense ministers, foreign ministers and prime ministers held separate telephone talks and agreed that Diaoyu is the scope of application of Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty and has the obligation of mutual defense. The newspaper pointed out that in just a few days the U.S. and Japan have repeatedly confirmed this matter, mainly to emphasize Japan’s substantial rule over the Diaoyutai Islands, but also hopes to use this to hold China back.
Japan is actively strengthening the capacity of the Maritime Security Agency. Japan’s territorial waters security operations by the Maritime Security Agency, but if the Maritime Security Agency can not respond, after the Cabinet meeting decision, the Minister of Defense can be issued by the Maritime Security Action Order, the Maritime Self-Defense Force to respond.
Some people in Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) believe that Japan needs to complete the decree to enhance cooperation between the Coast Guard and the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) due to the effect of the Chinese Maritime Police Law. However, Japanese Defense Ministry officials believe that if the Maritime Self-Defense Force is deployed, it is likely to give China a pretext to deploy its navy and should be handled with caution. The Japanese Ministry of Defense hopes to negotiate with China as soon as possible to open a hotline between the Self-Defense Forces and Chinese naval cadres in order to avoid occasional conflicts.
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